Pesando and Guidobaldi described
this house as preserving the dimensions of a pre-roman dwelling with a long and
narrow plan of rooms placed only along the north side and opening onto the long
corridor. This house also had rooms on the upper floor above it, reached by the
steps at IV.9, probably above rooms 1 – 5 of the lower floor.

The front of the house was occupied
by the service rooms, 1) small room divided with a wooden screen, by the steps
to the upper floor, the kitchen with neighbouring latrine (2), and the
cupboard/storeroom (3) in whose north-west corner lies the channel for the
discharge pipe for the latrine above on the upper floor.

The rear of the house contained the
better rooms, cubiculum 4, the receiving room 6, by not having an atrium, light
and air was received from the courtyard at 5 with a cocciopesto floor, and a
hunt scene on the rear wall, there is also a wide square cistern mouth in the south-west
corner.

Above the inside of the opening
that gave access to the courtyard 5 and to the room 6, there was a fresco, now
lost, that gave the conventional name to this house, here was shown a roll of
papyrus (volumen) with the name in Greek of Eutychos and the typical elements of
writing instruments, the inkwell and pen.

On the south wall of the long
corridor, protected by a sheet of glass, was a long graffito on red stucco, where
reference is made to the Guild of Herculaneum shippers, and a less clear
relationship with the great port of Pozzuoli.

IV.8
Herculaneum, September 2015. Room 4, looking towards north wall, with window in
east wall, on right.

IV.8
Herculaneum, September 2015. Room 4, east wall.

IV.8
Herculaneum, September 2015. Room 4, looking through window in east wall across
courtyard 5.

IV.8
Herculaneum, May 2010. Room 4, looking through window in east wall across
courtyard 5.

IV.8
Herculaneum, 1964. Room 4, into room 5.

Looking
through window in east wall across courtyard towards north-east corner.

Photo
by Stanley A. Jashemski.

Source:
The Wilhelmina and Stanley A. Jashemski archive in the University of Maryland
Library, Special Collections (See collection page) and made available under the Creative
Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License v.4. See Licence
and use details.